Please do not add a door. If you are concerned about heating and cooling costs you may want to scale back your square footage.

I can’t change the size of the house anymore. Too late for that. And was thinking of a clear glass to allow light in.

It sounds you’ve made up your mind that you want a door. Yes, glass would be better than solid but a door cutting off part of the house is not aesthetically pleasing.

No door!

Your answer will come from a person that knows the house's layout and construction, area in which it is built, the site, location, and a lot more information. We can only assume your picture is of the model home, and if 'heating/cooling is a key consideration' you should design a home to meet that consideration instead of altering a home that is not.

Mark- Agree with you and the double glazing should help with that. This door would be something extra that we are thinking but can’t figure out the return on investment !

I like doors between rooms but not in that space. It won't look as nice. It's just...wrong stylistically.

Unless you're planning on not using the room(s) behind the doors, you'll want the same temperatures on both sides anyway.

A door will not save you significantly unless as Fori said, you're closing off that part of the house and not using it.

The idea was that if we spend a lot of time in the living area (say 7-10pm) we isolate and warm it using zoning and it should stay warmer and not turn heating for any other part of the house. When we go to bed, we turn off zoning for the whole house except the bedrooms. That’s my plan so I was hoping the door would keep the heat in the living area instead of it dissipating through the hallway and going upstairs

"we are thinking but can’t figure out the return on investment"

Zero or dam near, but you seem hell bent on the idea and no one has been able to dissuade you yet. You will find in short order it will a pain in the a** and it will be left open and banged into more often then it will be closed.

"When we go to bed, we turn off zoning for the whole house except the bedrooms."

So then the system needs to start from even cooler on the morning and run longer. False dichotomy. Turn the zones back a bit, not off.

millworkman - So you wouldn’t put that door in there if it was you? By the way the house will be fully double glazed

"So you wouldn’t put that door in there if it was you"

From my end there is zero chance the conversation about putting it there would have ever started. So, no I would not put it there.

In the photo there's a large return air grille in the corridor wall so it would not be possible to add a door. Your house may have a similar issue with return air.

I don't see why energy conservation would be improved by separating an interior space anyway. Create some HVAC zones instead and get some professional design assistance.

RES2 - the RA grille is just before the bulkhead where the door will be located, so it’s possible. I was just thinking of trapping the hot air generated by the heater in the leaving areas so it doesn’t escape into the hallway. Would you do it if it was your house?

Separating the hallway is not important but separating the floors might be. I would not design a house where the landing was in a hall with a blind corner. Perhaps set the stair back and add a door there or at the upper level.

You shouldn't be asking for design assistance with so little information about the house. Designing one piece of a house at a time is not wise.

Your idea should work. We had a large 2-story house in the northeast with a 2-story foyer. In the winter we were able to close off two sets of pocket french doors that led into the family room, one from the foyer and the other from the dining room. The other end led to the kitchen and that side could not be closed off, but being able to stop the heat from going into the large foyer and up to the second story, allowed us to keep the family room warmer when we used the wood burning fireplace insert and were hanging out in that space.

You might want to see what types of upgrades your builder will allow for your HVAC system, both in design/engineering and products. Unfortunately this is an area that does not get the attention it deserves.

Without seeing a floorplan, I couldn't tell you to add a door or not. That should have been designed as part of the initial house design to not make it look like you just squeezed a door into the hallway.

We designed 3 pocket doors into our hallways of the house we just built, but they were part of the initial design and placed so that they were intentional "openings" in the hallways, when transitioning from one room to another.

"Agree with you and the double glazing should help with that."

I think you missed my point.

Be careful occasionally closing a door that's usually left open -- someone could accidentally run into it, especially if it's dark in the house.

If you block off space on one side of that return, just make sure that it isn't the only return. Each zoned area, if isolated, should have a dedicated return which is designed with the supplies to each zone in mind.

Hi sktn77a. There is no other return in the zoned area (living areas). There is only one in that hallway which would be before the zoned area and one upstairs. So you think this will be a problem, right?

VK, what do your contractor and architect recommend? It sounds like you just want validation here while most commenters are trying to dissuade you from doing this.

Thanks everyone. I have decided NOT to go ahead with the door.